Family Fulfills Dream of Moving to Israel

August 11, 2017 By Justin Silberman

The Fox family is excited about its move to the Jewish State. (Provided)

The Foxes are enjoying their new lives in Israel after leaving Baltimore to start afresh. Pushing luggage heaped high on carts, Calen and Rachel Fox and their three children, ages 7, 4 and 2½ months, made aliyah on July 19.

Neither Calen, 33, nor Rachel, 30, both medical professionals, had a job awaiting them, but that didn’t deter them from packing up their lives and moving nearly 6,000 miles away.

“We both hope to be able to continue our careers in Israel, contributing as much as we can in our given fields,” Rachel said. “People aren’t always able to stay in their initial professions due to a variety of reasons. But we feel that as long as we find work that makes us happy and allows us to support ourselves, then really we are golden.”

The family’s move was all made possible through Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that has helped tens of thousands Jews from the United States and Canada relocate to Israel since 2002.

Calen, a Colorado native, and Rachel, a Pittsburgh native, said they both had set their sights on moving to Israel for many years, even before they married eight years ago. In fact, before they had even met, they sought a partner who wanted to one day settle in the Jewish state.

Rachel has lots of family there, and Calen’s parents are planning to join them in the near future. Rachel’s parents have lived in the Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood for three years, thanks to Nefesh B’Nefesh, and she seemed more than anxious to reunite with them.

“Everyone knows about Nefesh B’Nefesh,” Rachel said with an exuberant tone. “They make the transition so much easier, and so it was a no-brainer to make aliyah through them.”

Rachel and Calen had visited Israel for one and two years, respectively, after graduating high school but decided to act on their longtime desire to live there.

When the couple decided now was the ideal time, they admitted it was because they longed to deepen their family’s spiritual connection.

“We feel most at home here and want to raise our children with the Israeli value system,” Calen said. “There is a special feeling of family and community here that is hard to find anywhere else.”